


hold me closer

by manicmidnight



Series: thiam touches [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: (lowkey) - Freeform, And he gets one haha, Confident Liam, Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, Liam is a Little Shit, M/M, Possessive Liam, Protective Liam, Scent Marking, Teacher AU, Theo Raeken Needs a Hug, Theo is a Little Shit, Touch-Starved, Touching, very platonic stuff dudes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-01-23
Packaged: 2019-03-07 02:32:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13424853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manicmidnight/pseuds/manicmidnight
Summary: Theo’s admittedly touch-starved. Liam likes to take advantage of his boyfriend.





	1. liam

**Author's Note:**

> this popped into my head, and I somehow managed to combine it with a teacher au (kinda)? Liam's like finishing uni, by this time, so it's not fully there.
> 
> Anywho, I hope you enjoy ~~this trash~~ !

Liam…doesn’t really notice, at first.

Theo’s huddled up close to the headboard of his bed, book in hand and glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. There are papers scattered around him, inked to the brim with equations of some sort; and, Liam can’t even begin to understand physics, but he _does_ understand how fucking _appealing_ of a picture his boyfriend makes for, right now.

So, he gives in to urge.

“Wait, gimme one second.” Theo murmurs distractedly as Liam dives onto the mattress, jostling him, “Li – I _know_ you’re an eager little puppy, but at least let me finish this, bub.”

“No.” Liam says firmly, wrapping his arms around Theo’s mid-section and squeezing. He absently wonders if Theo will drop the pen, given that Liam puts enough strength into the hug. “I want to cuddle.”

He expects for Theo to groan, smack him upside the head with a stack of papers—Liam’s never usually been so forthright with his demands, so he isn’t exactly sure—or maybe even push him off the bed. He _doesn’t_ expect the chimera to actually acquiesce.

“Alright fine,” Theo quickly gathers up the papers into a neat pile, setting them and the book on the bedside table, “You get your wish, Little Wolf.”

“Don’t call me that.” Liam grumbles instinctively, though he knows it makes zero difference to his boyfriend; but, when he sees Theo’s fingers moving to pluck the glasses off, his eyes widen, “Don’t!”

Theo pauses, looking at him in thinly veiled confusion.

“What?” He blinks questioningly.

“Your glasses.” Liam’s cheeks burn, as he ducks his head. “Keep them on.”

There’s a pause, before Liam hesitantly looks up. His fears prove to be unfounded, heart swelling at the pretty pink flush that’s brushed across his boyfriend’s cheeks.

“You’re…” Theo’s actually at a loss for words—a win, by Liam’s rules—so Liam takes pity on his poor grouchy chimera and pulls him down so he can straddle him.

Well. The correct way to put it would be: to _collapse onto_ him. Big diff.

“You’re heavy.” Theo says, and Liam wants to feel affronted when he scents the unbidden _amusement_ wafting off the chimera, but he’s too tired to lift his head up now. “And sweaty.”

“ _You_ play university level lacrosse and tell me to not sweat.” Liam grumps, snuggling into Theo’s loose embrace in a hinting gesture; Theo gets it, letting his arms wrap more securely around Liam’s waist.

“Such a needy little beta.” Theo teases, letting his lips graze the crown of Liam’s hair, “You’re so high-maintenance, Li.”

“Shut up, you like it.” Liam shoots back, instinctively. There’s a long silence after he says that, and his eyes widen.

“Holy shit!” His head shoots up, so he can look at Theo’s avoidant expression, “Oh my _god_.”

“I’m atheist—”

“You actually _like_ it when I cuddle you!” Liam can’t stop the delighted smile from spreading across his lips; Theo’s honestly so _cute_ sometimes it makes Liam want to kick himself, and this is one of those moments. “ _Babe_!”

“Shut up.” Theo grumbles, bucking wildly to get Liam off him, but the beta lopes his arms around the older man’s shoulders as firmly as he can.

“No way.” Liam says, grin broadening as he all but smushes his face into Theo’s chest. “I’m going to leech onto you forever.”

“How unfortunate.” Liam can practically _hear_ Theo roll his eyes, but he doesn’t offer up any protest; not when Theo’s arm comes back down to wrap around his waist and pull him close.

His boyfriend smells of pure happiness, and that’s a scent that Liam’s slowly starting to get addicted to.

 

* * *

  

“Are you sure he’s going to be okay with this?” Mason questions Liam tersely as they drive into the school parking lot. “I dunno, bro, I don’t think unexpected house calls are really what he’d—”

“He’s my boyfriend, not yours.” It’s not meant to sound possessive, but… that’s exactly how it sounds. Liam isn’t taking that back, even when Mason looks at him strangely. “Don’t worry about it, he’ll like it.”

 _And if he doesn’t, well… Liam’s got an ace up his sleeve_.

“Alright dude, you do you.” Mason holds his hands up in a gesture of peace. “Have fun, I guess.”

“Yeah, thanks for the ride dude!” Liam beams at him, previous transgressions all forgotten.

Hopping out the car, he quickly makes his way into the office, getting one of those pesky visitor’s passes that… he’s never actually seen anyone use. Still, it’s better to be safe than sorry, and following the rules once in a while is _okay_.

He wanders around the hallways for a little while, knowing Theo’s probably in the middle of a class. He knows he’s still wearing his varsity jacket, like a total tool, but he wanted to surprise Theo as soon as he could. Going home and changing essentially would’ve meant more distance between Theo and Liam and… Liam wouldn’t be able to handle that. His wolf would probably go crazy first, anyway.

He doesn’t really expect to be called out on it, though.

“Excuse me, young man!” He doesn’t really pay attention to the voice ringing around the hallways, as he stares absent-mindedly at the softboard. “You, in that blue jacket!”

Liam’s eyes widen and he reflexively looks down at his torso; and, yes, he’s wearing blue. He slowly looks up again, to see a woman clacking down the hallway in what look to be uncomfortable heels, a scowl affixed to her face.

“Um, yes?” He asks hesitantly, cowed by the waves of irritation pouring off her. There are times when being a werewolf absolutely _sucks_. “What can I do for you?”

“Oh, _polite_ , are we?” She mutters, finally coming to a stop in front of him. “Well, you can ‘ _help me_ ’ by getting to class!”

“Class?” Liam blinks dumbly.

“Yes.” She huffs impatiently, rolling her eyes. “You’re here to _learn_ , not dawdle!”

This has got to be an elaborate joke. Liam looks around, searching the ceiling for any hidden cameras. He’s literally wearing his _university jacket_ , how could she possibly—

“I’m sorry, I don’t—” Liam starts to smile politely, but she scowls and he stops short.

“Get. To. Class.”

And okay, this is seriously starting to grate on his nerves. How could she _not_ notice? Liam’s blood starts to simmer, and he desperately fights to hold back a threatening growl that aches to leave his chest. She’s _really_ pissing him off now.

“He’s with me.”

He’s snapped out of his anger immediately when he hears his boyfriend’s silky-smooth tone, and he inhales deeply, letting Theo’s grounding scent tickle his nose. He looks around the woman to see his mate smiling charmingly at her, and finds himself struck, once again, by how gorgeous the man looks.

That happiness quickly evaporates when he sees her actually _smiling_ back. She doesn’t get to do that.

“He’s still a child, Mr. Raeken!” She essentially _gushes_ , which is disgusting. “He can just go get an excuse slip—”

Liam’s respect for Theo can’t possibly go any higher, but it nearly does when the chimera actually starts _laughing_ halfway through her sentence.

“He’s not a student here!” Theo offers up, laying a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “He’s my boyfriend, goes to Davis.”

“Oh.” The woman blinks, and Liam can clearly scent the realization and disappointment wafting off her. “I see.”

With a harried glance in his direction, she quickly clacks away.

Liam doesn’t realize he’s smiling rather nastily at her retreating back until Theo clears his throat.

“Not that I’m not happy to see you.” Theo drawls, crossing his arms. “But… why’re you here?”

“Wow, what a warm reception.” Liam grins cheerily, holding out his arms. “C’mon, I _know_ you wanna hug me.”

Theo glances around furtively, and Liam rolls his eyes.

“Let them see.” He waves off the unspoken concern, stepping forward to wrap his arms around his boyfriend. “I missed you.”

“It’s been a week.” Theo points out dryly, though his arms sneak around Liam’s waist too, pulling him close. He can snark all he wants, but Liam knows for a fact that Theo loves this. The constant, comforting touches, brushes of skin against skin.

“Yeah, a week too long.” Liam mumbles, pressing his nose into Theo’s neck to get more of that delicious scent. “You smell really good.”

“You say that literally _all_ the time.” Theo huffs out laughingly, though he obligingly tilts his head to let Liam settle in, “I’m not done with class yet, you know.”

“How unprofessional.” Liam doesn’t let go. Theo’s arms haven’t budged from their place either, so he’s not going to take what Theo says too seriously. “Children not learning for five minutes.”

Theo’s cheek presses against Liam’s forehead almost unconsciously, as the chimera hums distractedly. Liam doesn’t comment on it, just happy that his boyfriend’s letting him hug him like this. He remembers the early stages of their relationship, where the two of them would awkwardly stare at each other and _want_ to touch, but’d never do it.

Now, though, Liam is willing to take any chance to get Theo to touch him, knowing the chimera loves it. And, yeah, he might not be initiating this time, but Liam’ll wear him down eventually.

For now, he can live with this.


	2. theo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Theo learns to demand and admit.

Theo is the last person who’ll admit to liking comfort hugging. He’ll feign disgust, wave it off with a curled lip and a revolted sneer, keeping his Evil Chimera façade together. That way, everyone fears him _and_ he doesn’t get called out on being overtly threatening. Lying to people is so easy, Theo wonders how people can bear to be honest, ever. The only problem in Theo’s perfect scenario is Liam.

See, the thing is, Theo can lie to everyone else, even himself. But the one person who he absolutely _can’t_ lie to is Liam. Forget lying, though; Theo can’t ever even say _no_ , and it’s starting to put his daily life in peril.

For example: the time Liam comes to his school to ‘surprise’ him. Theo doesn’t really approve, but since when has Liam cared?

 

(okay, that’s a lie. Theo, in fact, feels this stupid warmth in his chest that he refuses to acknowledge, thank you very much.)

 

Theo _tells_ him. Tells him that he’s still teaching a class of annoying 17-year-olds, that he doesn’t have time for hugging it out in the hallways. But then Liam just _has_ to do the Thing, where he pulls himself close to Theo, noses along the column of his throat. And Theo’s gone, mind turned to mush as his skin sparks to life under Liam’s touch and he’s helpless to do anything but let the beta proceed.

And then someone spots them, because of _course_ Theo’s weakness has to come back to bite him in the ass. Of _course_ , his class is filled with lovable dunces who can’t handle themselves for five fucking minutes without either his presence, a full water bottle, or getting a full bladder.

So when he finally manages to kick Liam’s ass to the curb for _just another ten minutes, baby wolf_ and get back to his classroom, he’s greeted with nearly 25 personifications of the Lenny face staring at him. Or the Devil, it’s up for debate.

“What?” He asks cautiously, narrowing his eyes at the more timid students in the class, feeling strangely accomplished when they avert their eyes nervously. “Alright, if no one’s going to speak up, I guess we’ll get right back to Planck-Einstein relation—”

“Was that your boyfriend outside?” A student blurts out, and Theo stiffens, hand pausing over the whiteboard marker. He breathes in deeply, and decides to ignore the annoying little shit who decided to speak up, already regretting wanting to know.

“As I was saying,” He continues, picking up the marker to write the equation across the board, circling a variable, before turning to face the class, “The letter _E_ obviously represents the energy possessed by each quanta of—”

He grits his teeth when he sees a hand raised in the far back corner, and asks testily. “Yes, Ramos?”

The girl smiles cheekily at him, and has the audacity to say. “Elliot said you were hugging outside!”

Theo wants to quit. This is _not_ the shit he signed up for.

“None of your business.” He deflects irritably. “Any more questions?”

Almost every hand in the class goes up, and he sighs heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Any questions regarding the _lesson_.” He clarifies, watching in disbelief as every hand goes back down.

He stares at the kids menacingly.

The kids stare back, unflinching.

“I suppose it’s too late to ask for a resignation.” Theo says amicably. “Or for you to forget the past 10 minutes.”

“We just wanna know if you’re dating the dude.” Evans, a boy who’s always been too interested in Theo’s personal life to be real, says reasonably. Theo wants to chuck the marker at him, but he’s pretty sure that’s a violation of his contract, so he refrains. Just barely.

“Why?” Theo asks helplessly, raking his hand through his hair. “Whatever, forget I asked that—”

“Yeah, Mr. Raeken.” Theo’s head whips to the door, wide eyes taking in Liam’s shit-eating grin as he saunters into _his_ classroom. “Are you dating me?”

“Oh my god.” One of the girls says breathlessly when Theo just stares. “He’s totally soft for him.”

Theo hates that he can’t deny it, but makes a mental note to give her detention next class.

“What are you doing here?” He remembers to speak, voice flat, arms crossed. “I’m pretty sure I told you to wait outside.”

“I got bored.” Liam draws close, voice barely a murmur. “And I missed you.”

Theo hates the flush that brushes over his cheeks at that, and doesn’t try to answer, herding Liam out the door even as he protests vehemently.

“I’ll see you after class.” Liam gives up, winking obnoxiously, much to Theo’s disgust. “ _Mr. Raeken_.”

And Theo slams the door shut.

Turning back to the class, he takes in their creepy smiles, and sighs.

“Fine,  _yes_ , he’s my boyfriend.” He admits. “Now can we just move on?”

 

Needless to say, they don’t move on.

 

* * *

 

 

Theo feels kind of guilty, when he thinks about it. Liam’s always the one who’s pressing forward, hand grounded against Theo’s back, arm loping around his waist. He’s the one who tilts his jaw up to kiss him, to take Theo’s breath away and Theo… Theo wants to be able to do that too.

It’s just hard, sometimes. See, Theo usually resolves to do it, to be the one to saunter over to Liam and envelope him in a hug, maybe get in a little peck or two, but every single time he’s done that, Liam manages to beat him to it. It’s terrifying, how easily Liam gets one over him, and how much Theo _likes_ it. It still stands though, that it’s unfair to the younger boy; and Theo is _hellbent_ on correcting that because he’s trying to be a good boyfriend (and his ‘coz class will never let him live it down but that’s not the point).

So, he looks in the mirror, squares his shoulders, and decides that tonight’s the night. He’s going to go to Liam, and demand the cuddles he so desperately needs, and going to be proud of it. Incidentally, Liam’s downstairs in the living room, so Theo actually has a chance of being able to ask, this time. No more unsaid requests; he’s going to do it.

So, steeling his resolve, he pushes open the bathroom door and confidently walks out… only to stop short.

Liam’s lying on the bed, propped on his elbows, playing absent-mindedly on his phone. Theo’s eyes widen, because _no way, Liam’s not going to_ —

Liam scents him, evidently, looking up with a broad grin.

“The game was getting boring, and I was cold.” He offers in explanation, before tossing his phone to the side and sitting up fully. “I figured you might want some company too.”

He opens his arms invitingly, and _no, Theo is so done_.

“Why’re you here?” He blurts out, which makes Liam give him this startled look, like he can’t believe he just said that. “Aren’t you supposed to be downstairs?”

“Uh… I don’t _have_ to be anywhere?” Liam offers, brows furrowing, and he knows he already said it but, to reiterate: Theo’s _so done_. “If this is your way of trying to get out of the hug, that’s not happenening.”

“That is literally the exact opposite of what I was trying to do.” Theo decides not to pick a fight over it, dejectedly slumping onto the covers and rolling into Liam’s arms. “Anyway, why’d the game suck?”

“Because commercials.” Liam answers distractedly, before he asks. “Why do you sound so…?”

He trails off, knowing that Theo gets him.

“It’s nothing.” The chimera rolls his eyes, curling his arm tighter around Liam’s waist, “Forget it.”

Of course, Theo conveniently forgets that this is Liam; the _last_ thing he does is listen to Theo. He bites back a whine of protest when Liam pulls away, reminding him of this fact, to rake his concerned eyes over Theo’s face, trying to discern something.

“Stop.” Theo huffs impatiently, wanting to feel warm again, but Liam keeps staring.

“What’s wrong?” The beta asks softly, in _that tone_ , the voice that Theo can’t ever say no to. “Is it one of your nightmares acting up again?”

“I haven’t slept today.” Theo points out instinctively, before cursing himself for pointing that out.

Liam stares hard at him, and Theo gives up.

“Fine.” He bites out. “I’ll tell you what my problem is. _You_ always keep coming to me to cuddle me. That’s my problem.”

“You don’t like it?” Liam looks confused, and slightly hurt, and Theo’s eyes widen when he realizes how it must sound.

“No, that’s not it.” He pulls away, lying on his back as Liam looks at him with those _stupid blue eyes_. “It’s just… I wanted to ask you to do it, but you always beat me to it.”

“Seriously?” Liam snickers, and Theo’s cheeks burn; he _knows_ how stupid it sounds. “Okay. Tell me, then.”

“What?” Theo turns his head, stares at Liam in confusion. His boyfriend just smirks back.

“Tell me to hug you.”

“This is so stupid.” Theo grumbles, because of course Liam doesn’t take it seriously.

“No, really.” Theo’s heart stutters when Liam’s hand comes to press against his cheek. “Tell me.”

His mouth is dry, and even swallowing is difficult.

“Okay.” Theo whispers, face heating up as he’s overcome with nerves. “Uh. Would you—h”

“I said to _tell_ not _ask_.” Liam interrupts, and his expression is so genuine that Theo can’t even tell him off.

“Fine.” He says stonily. “I want you to hug me.”

“Okay, so?”

 _Are you shitting me?_ Theo wants to say. _Fuck you, Dunbar._

But that’s the last thing he does, obviously.

“Hug me.”

It’s kind of embarrassing, how needy he sounds, but Liam doesn’t make fun of him for it, happily pulling him close and nuzzling into his neck. Theo makes an involuntary little noise in the back of his throat to which Liam makes a cute little purr back.

Feeling a rush of confidence, Theo licks his lips and adds. “Aren’t you going to kiss me now?”

“I don’t know.” Liam doesn’t pull away, and Theo shivers at the breath hitting his neck. “Do you think I should? Or do you wanna do it yourself?”

He pulls back then, looking up at Theo with those gorgeous eyes, and Theo can’t stop himself from leaning in, quickly brushing their lips together, once, twice, before pulling back and looking Liam in the eye.

“See?” Liam’s mouth is pretty and pink, and his eyes sparkle. “You’re already improving.”

“Fuck off.” Theo tells him, joy abating, though he still pulls him in, breathes in the scent of his shampoo. “You’re lucky I like cuddling you, or you’d be kicked to the couch.”

Liam doesn’t say anything, just laughs quietly. And Theo?

Theo just gives in, and smiles back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you ever wanna tell me how it sucks or anything (or if I made a major mistake), you know what to do!
> 
> side note: the Lenny face is ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

**Author's Note:**

> Constructive criticism is like my elixir, honestly.
> 
> [Find me on Tumblr!](https://maniacalmidnight.tumblr.com/) (there’s just gonna be a bunch of random shit there LOL)


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